host: dennis johnson is here to talk of up tonight's state of the union address, but also looking back and other state of the union addresses. can you think of an appropriate comparison for tonight's state of the union? after the president's first year with an economic situation like he had, headlines that read "liberal funnieunease," cau come up with a comparison? guest: it is pretty tough. he might have to go back to bill clinton. at this time, the company was coming back strongly. of course, is big problem -- his big problem was his agenda. he famously had troubles with the monitor talking about health care. but you alshave to go back to ronald's -- ronald reagan paused first term. there were positive signs that he was going to do something better. there was a lot of anticipation at that time. i think those would be good parallels for barack obama. host: how did they use those speeches to take on the years as president? guest: when you look at all three of them, they are probably the best communicators that we have had. from ronald reagan, he acknowledged people in the audience, ame